While the drafting boards of commercial drafting tables vary widely in size, such boards are generally heavy and bulky, often weighing well in excess of 100 pounds and exceeding eight feet in their longer (horizontal) dimension. Most manufacturers pack and ship such boards separately, leaving the job of assembling the boards to their supporting bases to be undertaken when the components reach their destination. Because of the size and weight of the boards, a typical installation requires the combined efforts of two or more workers, usually positioned at opposite ends of the board, to lift the board into position and to insert and tighten the necessary screws or other connectors.
In an effort to simplify the on-site mounting operation, some manufacturers fix the mounting brackets to the boards at the factory with the thought that it is easier to secure the brackets of a board to a support base than to secure a board to brackets pre-mounted upon such a base. While such a construction does have the advantage of simplifying on-site assembly, it still ordinarily requires the efforts of at least two workers. The pre-mounting of the brackets upon the boards has a further disadvantage of hindering factory inspection of the fit and operation of the tilt mechanism with the base unit combination prior to shipment. Thus, the pre-mounting of the brackets upon a board not only fails to eliminate the need for an assembly team for on-site assembly, but also does not easily permit factory inspection of a tilt mechanism and base combination that comprises the total product.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,140,559, 3,273,517, 3,638,584, and 3,698,327 are illustrative of conventional drafting table and board constructions.